Iom Tagoj
by TheDiiva
Summary: Little days, they come and go. Little days, what is and what has been; I wish I could know. (A collection of oneshots, various ratings) Newest: Stitch The Wounds- Sometimes, things get worse before they get better.
1. Pyromaniacs

Theme: Favorite

 **IOM JAGOJ**

 _A series of oneshots_

-o-oOo-o-

Title: Pyromaniacs

Genre: Humor, Friendship

Rating: T

Characters: Jack, Maddie, Vlad; College Trio

Summery: Never underestimate the capacity of which three science students can cause chaos.

Warnings: Swearing, fire.

-o-oOo-o-

"Mr. Fenton, Mr. Masters! In here now!"

Vlad froze, turning to glance at his friend beside him. Jack winced, and Vlad inwardly groaned. In unison they turned around and walked into the administrators office, Vlad readjusting the books in his arms. The door slammed behind them, the two students trying not to flinch. They took the two seats set out before the desk.

Vlad leaned closer to his friend, "Jack-"

Hands slammed down on the desk and Vlad nearly bit his tongue shutting his mouth so fast. Before them, the administrator was red in the face, his eyes glaring at them with a vehemence that Vlad forced himself not to shy away from.

"You two should be expelled for this, you know! The amount of shit you two've caused this year has been past what would be tolerated from any normal student! If it wasn't the fact that you were working on a unique subject and actually getting results from it, you'd both be tasting the dirt road, scholarships and grades be _damned!_ " the man bellowed. Jack shifted nervously, but Vlad stared in disbelief.

"What've I done?!" he squawked.

The administrator jabbed a finger towards Vlad, "Don't play dumb, Masters! You know very well why you're in here!"

Vlad shook his head, protesting, "No, I'm being serious, I haven't done—"

" _Silence!_ " the man slammed his fist on the desk, and the two flinched, going silent, "You will both be spending the entire week cleaning up that building! You're lucky that I'm not calling the police for this, all of your incidents have surely added up to a criminal offense!"

"But I haven't-"

"Silence, Masters! Your punishment starts today! Five O'clock sharp, you had both best be in the science building!" he barked. The two quickly nodded their heads, for fear of the man blowing a gasket if they even tried to fight the sentence. He administrator huffed, then say down in his chair, "Now out!"

They didn't need telling twice.

Jack was up and bolting through the door, Vlad trailing behind due to being over cumbered by his books. They continued down the hall, turning into another, before they even tried to slow down form heir near jogging pace. Despite jack still keeping a fairly brisk speed, Vlad matched it in full, weaving about the other few students occupying the hall.

"Jack...Would you care to enlighten me on what I've supposedly done to deserve a weeks worth of what's basically detention?" he finally asked.

Jack looked at him, and blinked. Then he shrugged, "Well, you see, Mads and I-"

Vlad stopped, his bulky companion advancing a few steps ahead.

"Why didn't you SAY it was Maddie who was with you?!"

Jack turned around and waving his arms above his head, "Cuz she's got that big report and presentation this Thursday! She needs all the time she can get to get to done!"

"And I don't need all my time to get _my_ thesis and calculations done?!" Vlad bit back. To be fair, his didn't require much work to get done. But _still_. Jack shrugged again.

"You work on them, I'll clean the science building up."

"What'd you do to the science building?!"

Jack scratched the back of his neck sheepishly, "Uhh...We, uh...kinda set it on fire?"

Vlad blinked.

"You set. The science building. On _fire_."

"Yeah." Jack nodded, "Room 107."

"Wait—YOU SET THE _INSIDE_ ON FIRE?!"

Jack threw his arms into the air again, "It was Maddie's fault! She added too much reactant! It was supposed to simmer until all that was left were the purities, but she dumped an entire beakers worth into it! Thing went up like a fiery tornado and belched on the ceiling!"

Vlad pinched the bridge of his nose, "Oh my god."

"Although it was a _little_ my fault cuz I forgot to remove the oxide from the mixture before giving it to her..."

" _Oh my god._ "

Jack smiled wide, "Well, y'know what they say! Live and learn!"

Vlad gave him a pointed loot, "Or, in your case, set shit on fire until you learn or die wondering."

"Hey, it works." Jack shrugged and Vlad stepped back up to his friends side. They continued down the hall, Vlad perpetually shaking his head.

"In the odd, unknowable ways that only Jack Fenton Logic works." the sarcasm was lost on Jack, but the subject wasn't pushed. They began to swing back towards the dorms, exiting the school building, "C'mon, lets go see if we can find some cheap cleaning supplies from the dollar store during our last few hours of freedom today."

"Eh, it's only a few hours per day, we'll still have the evening in the suit." Jack countered.

Vlad gave him another look, "Yeah, for _you_. _I_ have a night class at seven."

"Whoops."

Vlad rolled his eyes, shifting his books and trying to readjust the shoulder bag digging into his collarbone. Jack walked with his hands in his lab coat pockets, having had no need to bring any class suplies earlier. After a few minutes, he gave up watching Vlad try to deal with all of his things alone and took the textbooks right out of the shorter's hands. Vlad grumbled for a while, but eventually accepted it and wrapped his fingers around his shoulder bag's strap. Once at the dorm, Vlad tossed his stuff into his room, and the two set back out again.

"You think the school's gonna make us pay for the damages?" Jack asked, catching Vlad's wandering attention from the cars passing by on the street.

"Jack, they're making us clean it up, I wouldn't be surprised if they made us rebuild it too." Vlad snorted, brushing his hair back behind his ear despite the fact that wind just yanked it back out again, "But yes, we're probably going to have to pay for the damages." Jack was silent for a while before looking towards Vlad out of the corner of his eye.

"I don't supposed you could—"

"No. I'm not calling my mother to try to get her to smuggle some funds to me."

Jack shrugged, accepting the answer, "Was worth the ask."

"You do know that if my mother would ever try that she could be seriously hurt, right?" Vlad glared, his eyes narrowing.

"I know, but she's clever." Jack stated.

Vlad snorted, tightening his arms crossed in front of his chest, "Not clever enough to hide several thousand missing dollars from my father." he muttered.

Jack caught sight of the store they were headed to, and nodded towards it. He was thankful for the opportunity to change the subject, and Vlad was thankful his friend didn't push the touchy subject any further.

"What would you say we'd need to clean up burn marks?"

Vlad groaned, running his fingers through his hair, "Fuck, I don't know..."

* * *

"When you said you ' _kinda_ ' set room 107on fire, I thought you meant a little bit." Vlad stopped dead, gaping at the room, "Not this much!"

"It was a large scale experiment."

The entire front left corner of the room was scorched. Ceiling tiles were eaten away, revealing the innards of the world. Linoleum was painted with soot and debris, a burnt table pushed next to the door. Bright yellow string was tied from chairs and a anatomical display around the area, blocking it off. Vlad wandered closer, dropping the bucket in his hand onto a lab table. Jack sidestepped around him, setting the other supplies by the wall.

Vlad looked at him, incredulous, "To do what?!"

"We were trying to nail down the solution for the theoretical filter the Proto might need." Jack untied the string and moved the blockade away.

Vlad joined him, shifting the chairs away from the mess, "Maddie and I have just barely nailed down what might need filtering, why are you two trying to do that already?"

"To be prepared." Jack smiled, "It was her idea."

"Wonderful..." Vlad rolled his eyes, sneezing into his elbow from the kicked up soot. The air smelled like something foul was thrown into a campfire.

Jack began to mix the bleach with the water, carefully measuring it so as not to further damage the room. Vlad pulled over a table and started climbing on top of it, "Help me up."

Jack lent Vlad his shoulder, holding the other stead as he go to his feet on the desk. Vlad gestured for the supplies and jack relocated them to Vlad's desk, handing him a pair of gloves and a scrub sponge. Jack eyed him, "You're gonna fall and break your neck."

"Well at least you and Maddie would get compensation as my suitmates." Vlad joked, pulling on the gloves, "Get to work on the upper walls, we'll work from top to bottom to get the more difficult sections done faster."

"Got it!"

Vlad soaked his sponge in the solution then set to work scrubbing the ceiling tiles. The soot blackened the sponge before he was even done with one section. The solution ran down his gloves and he had to keep drying it off so it wouldn't fall onto his skin. The progress was slow and painful for the both of them, both needing to constantly reach up. Vlad back began to hurt from leaning backwards a bit. He paused after a while, wiping his forehead with his free hand. The clock above the door read only 5:43, and he exhaled loudly. He was going to be beat before he even packed up to go to his evening class, let alone sitting through it. Shaking his head and soaking his sponge, he went back to work.

"Hey losers!"

Vlad startled, and swung around. Jack looked to the door, beaming.

"Maddie!"

Maddie walked into the room, her hands on her hips. She raised a brow at them, "Figures Fenton roped you into helping him with this, Masters. You look like a nanny right now." 

Vlad flushed, "Actually, I'm serving _your_ punishment because they thought that I helped do this. Jack said nothing about you being there the entire time Dickwad chewed us out big time."

"Dicksen."

"Same thing."

Jack nodded towards her, "What are you doing here, Mads, I thought you have work to do for Thursday?"

Maddie shrugged, twirling her sunglasses in her fingers, "I was feeling guilty that Jack got punished and I didn't, so I swung by to lend a hand. But seeing as your both here by school order, I don't have to do a thing."

Vlad gave her a glare as he knelt down, "We _could_ use your help if your just gonna sit there for two hours, you know." he wet his sponge and wrung it. She waved a hand towards him, and set her tote bag on a clear table.

"Nope, I'm gonna work on this." she chirped, taking out bottles, beakers, a strange blocky device, and thick packets of papers. She set the palm-sized machine on the table, curling it's wires around it.

Jack's face lit up as he saw everything, "The solution thesis!"

Vlad furrowed his brows, "Wait what?"

"I think I figured out what we need to do for the filtrator to work. It both overheats and fails to supply the engine with what it needs to form Untrihexium. So I was thinking we need a coolant that won't interfere with the pressurized reactants." Maddie explained, flipping through the papers. She bit the side of her sunglasses, a crease forming on her forehead as she skimmed over the tiny font.

"Water. It's the easiest thing to use." Jack suggested. He walked over to her side and looked over her shoulder.

Vlad shook his head, " _Easy_ doesn't necessarily mean a _good_ _option_. Water turns to steam, and the engine may actually split it back into hydrogen and oxygen. And personally, I don't want _hydrogen_ anywhere near superheated polarity coils." he stated, "Helium wouldn't react to the heat if it got too hot, perhaps we could chill it?"

Maddie frowned, "I'm not too sure about that. Besides, pure helium would run us a huge tab—one none of us can afford."

Jack's eyes lit up, "Liquid nitrogen?"

Vlad rolled his eyes, "We don't want to _freeze_ the entire engine." he retorted.

"No, hear me out. Instead of a coolant we add after the fact, why don't we just alter the framework for a chamber inside it? Surround the coils and the charger with the nitrogen, that way the rest of the machine wont be melted. The coils'll get pretty hot anyway, so the nitrogen won't stay at freezing temperature for long." Jack explained. His hands gestured excitedly around, vaguely illustrating what he was talking about.

"But if the rest of the machine gets too cold, it won't work. The parts will freeze together and the electrical currents'll go haywire." Maddie countered, resting her chin on her hand as she leaned over the table.

"So we need something cold but no _too_ cold. And nonreactive."

"Argon, perhaps? Argon is the gold of the noble gases, it doesn't react with anything. The chamber idea may actually work, just not with nitrogen. We'd just have to figure out how to chill the argon, as the gas tends to not be stored at low temperatures." Vlad said. Maddie shook her head, a conflicted grimace spreading across her face.

"I don't know...I like that, but I don't think we could chill argon." she said after a bit.

"Okay, lets do a test." Jack spoke up again, "Let's try some water on the smallscale test build engine, I can alter it easy for the chamber, and see if it splits. If it does, we'll invest into argon. If it doesn't, we'll try it with the fullscale. Sound good?"

Vlad jammed his tongue into a crack between his teeth, humming. He stared at the leg of a desk as he thought, mentally weighing the options. Maddie kept biting on her glasses, the toe of her shoe bouncing on the titled floor.

Vlad nodded, "Alright, fine. Lets go with that. I still stand by my assumptions, however."

Jack chuckled, "V-man, you're too paranoid. I don't think the Proto is strong enough to rip atoms apart." he poked Vlad in the leg with a scrub brush.

Vlad snorted, "Oh, my mistake, it's just strong enough to _slam them together._ "

"Settle your little butt down, Mr. Sarcasm." Maddie chided, looking at him pointedly. She grabbed a large beaker and scooted over to him, "Masters, you fill this with water and put it in the cooler."

Vlad frowned, pausing in his decent from the table, "Wait, why can't you do that?"

She waved her hand in the air as she walked back over to the table, "Because Jack and I need to set up the smallscale."

"Fine, I need a break from this bending and stretching anyway." Vlad hopped down, grabbing the beaker. Jack began to pry the dented, welded casing off the machine on the table.

"I'll try to get a chamber made up real quick, Mads, you set up the power source."

* * *

Vlad peeked by Jack's arm, "How's that makeshift chamber?"

The bulky man snorted, placing his hands on his hips, "Not pretty, we can't put the cover on, but it's functional."

Maddie perked at the exchange, turning and looking around Vlad at the machine. The framework was bare tot he world, wires and connections spilling out in all directions. A newly formed oblong ring was around the heart of the device, partially buried by gears and pistons. Tubing and bolts littered the table, thick cords extending from the tiny device to the wall sockets. Vlad bent, inspecting the connections and joints. Maddie nodded, and she walked tot he cooler, chestnut curls bouncing with her steps. She retrieved the glass beaker from the top shelf, breaking up the ice that formed inside with a screwdriver.

"Good enough. Let's test this!"

Vlad watched as the other two filled the cooling chamber with the ice water mixture. He eyed it, uncertain. All of the previous attempts to fix the overheating issue have failed. The smallscale never had an issue with overheating, but the largescale—the final product—did, so the smallscale had to be modified to do so. The duo finished and moved back, taking the remote control from the table. Vlad joined them, his arm crossed and his chin in his hand.

"Maddie, normally I only disagree with your genius when I have valid reason for why I don't think something'll work, but right now, I just have a really bad feeling this isn't going to work." he muttered.

Maddie turned and gave him a small smile, "It'll be fine, most of the beaker was ice when I got it out. That's plenty cold enough, and the waters separated from the coils anyway, even if it did split."

Vlad hummed, "I guess you're right..."

Jack pushed between them, a wide smile splitting his face, "Ready?!"

"As ready as I'll ever be." Vlad steeled his resolve and crossed his fingers behind his back—all ten of them.

"Flip it!" Maddie clapped her hands together, staring intently at the machine.

"Flipping it!"

The switches were pushed forward, and electricity rushed to the portal. The machines began to move, coming alive as they worked to perform their designed task. It began to buzz, and the sound got louder and louder until a soft hissing screech joined in. Vlad tensed, the uncomfortable feeling in his gut returning full force despite Maddie's reassurance. The machine wailed, but despite the cacophony of noises, it held fast. Minutes passed and all seemed well. Nothing was smoking or melting yet.

And then it was. Hot steam screamed as it poured out of a hole somewhere in the cooling chamber. The smell of burning metal wafted into the air. Metal popped as it distorted from the heat.

Jack blinked at the machine, "Uh oh."

"BAIL, HIT THE FLOOR!"Vlad yelled. His fingers fisted into the lab coats of his friends, pulling them as he lunched himself backwards onto the floor.

The machine exploded, bursting apart and spilling is white-hot intestines all across the room. The large ball of flame expanded into the room, dissipating as it ran out of fuel to consume. Smoke rolled over the trio, the hairs on the backs of their necks tingling from the heat above them. Vlad hissed, his elbow throbbing from being slammed against hard tile. Jack slowly uncovered his head, coughing in the hazy, sulfur-smelling air hanging around them.

"Vladdie, Mads, you okay?!"

Vlad slowly pushed himself up, coughing, "I told you both. I told you and you said it was good!" he snapped, looking back towards the smoldering table, "We just basically set of a bomb."

Maddie waved her hand in front of her face, "I'm fine, and so is Vlad if he's complaining"

Vlad flopped over to glare at her, "My complaints are valid! Do you two—"

Jack's hand twisted into the collar of his lab coat, " _Fire!_ "

Maddie furrowed her brows, "What?"

"The room is on fire again!" Jack jabbed a finger towards the ceiling. The other two fallowed the gestured, eyes locking onto the licking flames slowly eating away at the ceiling. The far wall matched it, papers and drywall charring and crumbling. Vlad's jaw fell open.

"YOU SET THE ROOM ON FIRE _AGAIN!_ "

Maddie slapped him, " _ **WE**_ SET THE ROOM ON FIRE AGAIN, YOU HELPED THIS TIME!" she scrambled to her feet, stumbling over both men's legs as she darted towards the door, "We need water!"

Vlad raced after her, trying to look through the building smoke, "Screw _water_ , we need an _extinguisher!_ "

"We used the extinguisher last time, it's not here anymore!" Jack called, grabbing the portal notes and tote bag from against the scarred table.

Maddie rushed in, heaving a bucket full of water after her. She threw it at the fires climbing up the wall, only partially dousing them. The flames crackled and hissed, and she swore. Vlad's eyes suddenly widened.

"Oh no, the—"

Loud alarm beeps blared to life, and Vlad had to shove his hands to his ears to muffle it. The sprinklers spritzed and began to spraying water all over the room. It did very little for the flames creeping across the ceiling.

"Fire alarm..." he finished lamely.

"Ignore it, just put it out!" Jack snapped.

Vlad threw his arms out, incredulous, "With what, my _**face?!**_ "

Maddie grabbed him by the sleeve of his arm and yanked him out of the room. The cleaner air filled his lungs and he coughed for a moment, not realizing how much smoke he'd been breathing. Jack muffled his own coughs from somewhere beside him. A bucket was shoved into his chest and he winced, fumbling as he grabbed it. Loud footsteps sounded from down the hall, and he turned just in time to see the vary angry red face of the school administrator fallowed by several firefighters.

"YOU THREE GET THE HELL OUT OF HERE! TO MY OFFICE, NOW!" the man roared, jabbing a ringer down the hall.

The trio remained frozen for a few seconds. Snapping out of their daze, they threw their buckets to the ground and took off down the hall, running as fast as they all slid to a stop at a stairwell, Vlad leaning on the handrail as he tried to catch his breath. He looked between his friends, shakeing his head slowly as he registered what they'd just done in full.

"We are so dead." Maddie said through her panting breath.

Vlad snorted, "Gee, I wonder why."

Jack laughed, nudging Vlad in the ribs, "Oh come on, you enjoyed that."

"I did not!"

"Liar, that was awesome. And we learned what _not_ to do for the Proto."

"...Okay, it was kinda rad, since it was kinda a bomb." Vlad admitted, leaning his head back against the wall. Jack's smile grew and he punched his smaller friend in the arm lightly. Vlad just grinned and shook his head disbelievingly.

Maddie chuckled, "Don't worry, I'll bail you two out, Mr. Dicksen listens to me."

"We're still gonna be skinned." Vlad pointed out, pushing off the wall and walking with the other two as the slowly climbed the stairs.

Jack smirked at him, "Yeah, but do you even feel bad about it?"

"Not a god damned bit."

"Would you want to do it again?"

"Absolutely."

-o-oOo-o-

AN: The college trio is forever my favorite. Just gimme all of their misadventures. Also, I have no idea how the heck college works. I realize that this prolly isn't realistic at all, but fuck it, I wanted to write some college trio blowing stuff up and dammit I did it.


	2. Stitch The Wounds

Theme: End

 **IOM JAGOJ**

A series of oneshots

-o-oOo-o-

Title: Stitch the Wounds

Genre: Hurt/Comfort;Angst

Rating: M

Characters: Vlad Masters, Maddie Fenton, Jack Fenton

Summery:Sometimes, things must break before they can get better.

Warnings: Swearing; Minor gore; Descriptions of a panic attack

-o-oOo-o- _  
"Wakin' up, I don't feel alive,  
How fucked up are we inside?  
Breaking up in your empty eyes,  
Where's the **truth** to all the _**lies?** _"  
-Let Go, Hollywood Undead_

-o-oOo-o-

The word swam in front of him, and his fingers dug into the upholstery of the chair. Colors blurred, and he felt a sickening sense of vertigo as the lights brightened and dimmed seemingly at random. He bit his tongue to try to stop the feeling of rocking, but it did little to help. He kind of saw two faces turn towards him, and he focused on trying to see them clearly.

"You okay, Vladdy?" the concerned tone in Jack's voice was genuine, and it did nothing to help kick Vlad's urge to puke. Maddie's face, however, was a welcome sight when his world became crisp again, her brows knit as she looked at him with worry.

"I'm sorry, I just don't feel very good." Vlad said, "I think I might be coming down with something."

Jack smiled, and Vlad internally kicked himself, "We've got some meds if you wanna take anything. It's best to catch it before it gets too bad, after all."

Vlad shook his head, "No, that's quiet alright. I'll be fine on my own."

"If you say so." Jack shrugged, "Anyway, we started these new plans for a gun against Phantom. He's always oddly resistant to our other weapons, they never seem to affect him as much as they should. But we got a lot of information from the last time we took readings of him. This new gun has to pack a good punch—maybe even enough to disrupt his signature enough to destabilize him!"

Vlad felt a pang of irritation, an unwelcome feeling of worry coming along with it. He knew Daniel could take care of himself, but the idea of such a weapon existing that could do so much damage to him was not one he was comfortable with. He didn't know what would happen to a halfa if their ghost half was destabilize. Daniel could very well be killed. At best, Vlad assumed he'd be severely injured and disabled for the rest of his life. He'd have to keep an eye on this weapon.

"How interesting. I think that such a weapon would be unnecessary, since there's really nothing physically abnormal with him." he mused. Maybe he'd get lucky and the latent lie would confuse them enough to be distracted from the gun.

Jack wasn't so easily swayed, "Oh, but he is! He's different from every other ghost we've ever known about!"

Maddie nodded, folding her arms over he knees as she leaned forward in the chair, "We don't know why, either. It's odd, Phantom shouldn't be as powerful as he is, given his age."

"Perhaps he's older than you think." Vlad supplied. His heel bounced off the floor, the familiar uncomfortable tension returning to his muscles. He ignored the way everything blurred a little again.

"We thought about that, but there hasn't been any reports about him before the portal opened. He doesn't have a history in the human world." Maddie argued. Jack nodded beside her and Vlad cursed their observations. The one time they actually pay attention.

He shrugged, folding his hands over his stomach as he lounged, "Just because he doesn't have a history here doesn't mean he's as old as the portal opening. He might have just been one of the first ghosts to come through the portal, not formed around the same time. Correlation doesn't prove causation."

Maddie hummed, "True..."

Jack watched as she held her chin in thought, they turned his attention back to Vlad, "Hey Vlad, d'you have any ideas about why Phantom's different? We can't really think of anything."

The heat he was used to having was getting uncomfortable as it increased in temperature. The vertigo worsened, and he clenched his teeth together. He swore he felt his stomach back flip. He didn't dare shake his head, he feared it would make the sudden onslaught of symptoms worse.

"I'm sorry, I don't. I haven't studied anything ghost-related since college. I admit my knowledge on the subject is...degraded." he said, unable to keep from slurring his words. His lungs clenched while he was talking, refusing to relax. He only just barely managed to force out the last word.

It felt like his core was burning a hole in his chest. He tried to focus on breathing normally, but he could hear his own breath. He tried to find something to stare at, to pretend to be captivated by, but he couldn't find anything in the shifting world. The chair against his back was a pleasant source of stability. He felt his core pop once, twice, and it took all of his restraint to not curl up from the pain. He'd felt worse before, he tried to tell himself. It didn't really help. He rubbed the spot on his chest, knuckles pressing into his flesh as the tried to knead the soreness out of it. He was certain that sweat was gathering under his suit collar and at the back of his neck. He'd forgotten how uncomfortable sweating actually was, given he never overheated anymore. He could feel their eyes burrowing into him, and he wanted nothing more than to just get to the safety of his own home.

Maddie noticed his discomfort, and for once, Vlad was not alright with her attention. She looked him over, "Vlad, are you sure you're okay?"

He waved a hand, "I'm fine." He felt like he couldn't breathe, his lungs were so tight.

She frowned,"If your having chest pains, we should really take you to the hospital—"

His core twisted.

"No!" burning heat racing across his nerves in panic. Memories of the isolation and the pain and the terrible treatments flashed across his mind. Both Maddie and Jack flinched back, and Vlad swallowed thickly, "I mean, that won't be necessary. I'm not having chest pains."

Jack stared at him, but eventually nodded, "Alright."

"I do think I should go home, though. I wouldn't want to get anyone else sick." Vlad admitted. A few of his words slurred despite his best efforts to keep his voice even.

He wasn't going to waste the opportunity to get away. This wasn't normal, something was wrong with him. He was not one to have power issues, and having them now in front of ghost hunters was not the best thing to do. He didn't even wait for the responses, it wasn't up for debate. He was leaving. He pushed himself out of the chair, and his world went white. He felt everything jolt, his hands lashing out to grab something to keep himself from falling. His legs nearly buckled underneath him, it was only by sheer luck he managed to catch himself. He waited a few moments, trying to bring the world back so he could see. Everything still felt like it was moving, and he regretted, not for the first time during the evening, coming over when Jack had asked him to.

"You shouldn't be driving if you're stumbling, let us take you home." Maddie said quietly, sounding closer than before. Vlad felt nimble fingers hook under his elbow and he flinched away from the contact.

Vlad shook his head slightly, but even the small movement made colors dance between his eyes, "I'm fine. I can see perfectly well and my reaction time isn't hindered. I just stood too fast." When clear sight came back to him, he saw that both of them were way too close to him for comfort. He took a step back.

"Please, Vlad, I insist. I'd rather be safe than sorry, it only takes a second for someone to T-bone you." Jack pleaded, and Vlad bit his tongue to keep the remark that came to mind to himself. It was his damn fault he was even having this problem right now.

"I'm aware. But I'm being serious, I don't need any help. I can drive myself." Vlad protested.

He took the moment to sidestep around both hunters, and he tried to walk as fast as he could towards the door. The movement made him feel sick, and he was completely aware that he wasn't even walking straight. He hissed when he felt Jack's hand on his shoulder. The gesture gave him no stability and he staggered a little mid-step. he knew his body was hotter than what could be humanly possible, he could already feel the tendrils of smoke tickling the back of his throat. He needed to leave, he couldn't have a power meltdown here. It would be game over for him.

Jack's hands pulled him straighter, Vlad didn't have the energy to keep his shoulders from slouching, "You can barely stay on your feet! You're not driving."

Vlad shrugged off his fingers, "It's nothing! I'm fine!"

He glared at Jack, but was shocked when Jack returned it in full, "You either let me drive you home, or you can stay the night. You're choice. We're not letting you get behind the wheel."

"I said I'm fine! I'm just...running a little fever." He bit out, his breath hot. He smelled smoke. He swayed, and everything felt light. He felt the wonderful coldness of the wall solid under his fingers.

"He's lightheaded. I'll get a chair, he's going to pass out." Maddie's voice floated through the haze clouding his mind. He grit his teeth, snarling.

He slammed his palms onto the wall, "I SAID I'M FI—!"

His core popped again, his left arm set on fire. He felt a wavering sense of numbness pass over his flesh for a moment, and something was around the limb. As quick as it came, the sensation left, and pain exploded into his mind like a bomb. He screamed, his muscles tightening despite the fact that it worsened his agony. He barely heard Jack call his name as he fell against the wall, eyes shut tight. His fingers clung to the part of his arm that wasn't in the wall, as if holding it would make it hurt any less. He forced his eyes open, hissing through his teeth. His arm was phased into the drywall, stuck inside it. He pulled on it. it didn't budge. He tried to reach out to his core, flinching back when it flared with pain. He was stuck in the wall, and had no way to get out.

He hissed, faint pink trails rising from his breath, "No...oh god, **no** _..."_

He heard footsteps on the carpet, "V-Vlad...? D-did you just...?"

"D _-_ don't _..._ dammit _..._ not _now_..." He muttered, tugging on his arm. Pain shot up into his shoulder, but he ignored it. More footsteps, and his eyes went wide.

Panic consumed his mind.

He swung around, " _Stay away!_ Don't come closer to me!"

Jack froze, staring wide-eyed at him—more specifically his arm. Maddie had her hand over her mouth, standing near the doorway of the kitchen. Jack slowly swallowed, "Vlad, a-are you...?"

Vlad tensed, pressing fully against the wall. A pressure bloomed in the center of his skull, a painful drumming extending like claws over his brain. His chest felt tight, like everything inside it was collapsing in on itself. White spots danced in his vision. His eyes darted between the two hunters, raw fear filling every inch of him.

"Stay back! I'm fine! Just stay away!" He barked, voice raspy and thick. He yanked hard on his arm. If he could just get it out, he could run. He could hide. He had the money and the resources to make himself disappear in more ways than one. The wall refused to release him and he pulled as hard as he could, "Dammit, let go-!"

He saw Maddie move to Jack's side out of the corner of his eye, "Vlad, you're breathing really badly, and your smoking..." She took a few steps towards him, "Please, let us help yo-"

"Get away from me! _GET AWAY!_ I REFUSE TO BECOME YOUR EXPERIMENT! KEEP AWAY FROM ME!" Vlad pressed himself so tightly against the wall, his shoulder blade hurt, shrieking.

"We're not going to hurt you, we just want to help—"

Something snapped in his mind, and his eyes went red.

"Like you said you'd help me with my thesis?! Like you said you'd help me with my fear?! _Like you_ _ **promised**_ _you'd help me after the accident?!_ " He snapped, his burning eyes turning to glare at them. His irises glowed brightly, smoke trailing from them, "That's the thing when you two say you're going to help—you never do! It's always _empty promises_ and _**disappointments**_!"

Jack gaped, "We don't underst—"

Vlad snarled, large pointed fangs bared. The glowing red spot on his chest grew larger, the smoke rising from it like it was a fire. Pink energy crackled around him, a faint aura outlining him, "That blasted Proto-Portal destroyed my life! You _half_ _ **killed**_ _me,_ Jack Fenton, I'm half _ghost!_ Five years I spent locked away in an isolation room of that damn hospital! Five _**years**_ I slowly died from Ecto-Acne from your careless mistake! I endured years of my body revolting against ectopoisoning, of being torn apart until my ghost half saved my life!"

"And both of you did _**NOTHING!**_ " He screamed, "NOT A GODDAMN WORD, NO CARDS, NO CALLS! **NOTHING**! _I HALF DIED AND YOU DIDN'T_ _ **CARE**_ _!"_

Jack was taken aback, his eyes wide and horrified. He searched Vlad's face, but found very little resemblance to the friend that had been sitting in his living room just twenty minutes prior. He didn't look like he was lying either, but Jack knew that that couldn't be true.

He shook his head, "W-what do you mean, we sent you a letter every week but you never responded..."

" _LIAR!_ "

Jack opened his mouth to respond, but Maddie held her hand up to him. She slowly moved her hands in front of her, holding her empty hands up. Vlad glared at her, and she took a small step towards him anyway. His arms were shaking, his body pressed firmly against the wall like he was trying to hide against it. She should see the light of his core through the dark suit he wore, the veins on his neck glowing. Red haze escaped his throat every time he heaved a raspy breath, the flyaway strands of his hair plastered to his shining skin. The sweet scent of ectoplasm blended with the smell of something burning. Jack took a step forward to stay at her side, and Vlad glared at him.

Jack hold his hands up too, trying to show Vlad he meant no harm, "Please, Vlad, calm down. You're not okay, look at yourself. Your chest is glowing and your shaking and you're smoking all over." He risked taking another step, slowly reaching out to his old friend.

" _DON'T TOUCH ME!_ GET AWAY!" Vlad screeched, flinching away like a cat avoiding boiling water, "I WILL DESTROY YOU, I WILL **BURN** THIS HOUSE TO THE GROUND IF YOU TOUCH ME! I _HATE_ YOU, I HATE WHAT YOU'VE DONE TO ME, I HATE YOU FOR TAKING AND HAVING EVERYTHING I'VE EVER WANTED! I HATE EVER KNOWING YOU! I HATE THE WAY YOU LOOK AT ME LIKE I'M SOMETHING THAT NEEDS _FIGUREING OUT_ BECAUSE _I! AM!_ _ **FINE!**_ I'M FINE I'M FINE I'MFINE _I'MFINEI'MFINE_ _ **I'MFINE!**_ "

He felt his core lurch and the numbness seeped down his arm in patches. He didn't even wait for it to fully envelope him before he yanked, pulling his sore limb from the wall. Something sliced his flesh as he freed himself, but he didn't care, "Gah! God dammit, finally!"

He held his arm close, his eyes darting to the Fentons. They were too close, too close, _too close_. His mind raced, his instincts kicking in. Fight or flight, kill or be killed. Live or die.

He shifted, his muscles tightening. His core burned, _too hot. **Too hot**_.

His heart raced, he couldn't breathe, everything hurt. He saw their fingers.

 _Too close._

He couldn't fight. He darted to the side, sheer panic filling his veins. Run. Run. Run! Get away. Save yourself. Self preservation. They'll hurt you. They'll tear you apart. They _hate_ you. You're not safe. **Get away.**

He heard them call after him, but he didn't stop. His feet hit tile, he'd run the wrong way. Didn't matter, there was a back door. Back door. Back door. _Back door._ Run _run **run**. _ Can't breathe. Chest hurts. Everything smelled like fire, everything felt like fire. Something was burning. Back door.

He saw the brass knob, and he raced for it. His fingers grazed it before he felt the arms around him.

TOO CLOSE

 **TOO CLOSE**

He tensed, his fingers hooking and his nails scratching down slippery spandex. FIGHT. _**FIGHT.**_ NOT SAFE. _**THIS IS DEATH.**_

He fought, writhing, as the arms pulled him away from his exit. Escape. Escape. He needed to _escape._ His blood pounded so loud in his ears, and he chest hurt so, so much. _Too much._

He couldn't breathe. Too much pain.

 _It hurt._

 _It **hurt**. _

"GET OFF ME! GET OFF! LET GO! STOP TOUCHING ME!" He shrieked, pushing and writhing and kicking. Fight _fight_ _**fight**_. They wouldn't let go. _Too close._ "GET OFF!"

Fingers and arms laced around him, "Oh my god, Vlad, we are so sorry. We're so _sorry_..."

 _Too close._

 **Trapped.** _ **Trapped** meant **pain**. _

His eyes darted across cabinet doors, vision blurring, "Let me go!"

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry...we never knew, we never..." Maddie whispered, her voice so close to his ear. Her voice was cold on his skin, "W-we thought you were angry with us, we thought you needed space, we thought you _hated_ us...We didn't know how _**hurt**_ you were, how much we were still hurting you...I'm sorry, _I'm sorry..._ "

"I'm sorry, please, Vlad, I'm sorry, I never meant to hurt you so bad—you were my _best_ _friend_ , I would never—I didn't—I _couldn't_ —Oh god everything makes so much more sense now." Jack breathed, trying and failing to say so much as once.

They were holding him close. Maddie's arms tightened around his neck, her eyes shut so tight it hurt. It didn't stop the tears that clung to her eyelashes, they prickled her skin. Unevenly cut nails tangled in the ragged tangles of his ponytail, clinking to hair and dress shirt collar alike. Larger arms encircled his waist, thick fingers fisted into the expensive woven black fabric. Vlad was so tense, he was shaking. He was sandwiched between them. His heart beat so fast and so hard he thought it was going to give out, it hurt so bad. He couldn't do anything, his own hands digging in like claws to the bodies around him. They didn't seem to care how hot he was, how he was burning. He screwed his eyes shut, tried to turn his hearing off. He didn't want to hear this. He couldn't—

"We're so sorry, please, _we're sorry..._ "

— _It hurt—  
_

— _ **Everything hurt.**_

He swallowed, his throat raw "I need to leave, let me go..." he whispered.

They squeezed tighter.

"We're so sorry for everything. For leaving you behind, for the hurt, the _pain_ , for not knowing—We should've known better—We were your best friends, oh god should we have known better—We should have seen that something was so very wrong but we didn't and we're so-so-sorry!" One of them pleaded, and for his life, Vlad couldn't figure out which one. " _Please_...can you ever forgive us?"

" _I don't know... **I don't know**..._ " He shook his head, his voice so quiet. He tried to ignore the hotness that wet his eyelashes, "Oh god—Not here—Not now—"

He heard Maddie sniffle as she loosened her grip and pulled away. He refused to meet her eyes, he couldn't he felt her fingers ghost over his arm, pulling the drenched fabric away from the cut on his arm. He winced when she brushed the torn flesh.

"You're bleeding really bad..." Jack muttered.

Vlad cracked his eyes open. White blotches danced around the edges of his vision. He cast a glance down at his arm. Skin and muscle alike was fileted open like a fish. Thick blood congealed in the slice, glowing chunks of bright neon ectoplasm tainting it. The veins around the wound glowed, the light trailing down into his palm.

He swallowed thickly, turning his eyes away, "I'm fine..."

Maddie raised her eyes to his face, "No, you're not. You're not and it's all our fault...wait here..."

She pushed herself to her feet. Her heard her jog across the room and down into the lab. He swallowed again, closing his mouth as he tried to breathe out of his nose. He felt horrible, the pain returning to his skull slowly. With it came the vertigo, and he bit his tongue. He dug his finger into his chest, hissing as his core twisted again. Loud footsteps sounded from the lab door, and Maddie took the stairs two at a time. She dropped back onto the floor beside him. He rolled his gaze towards her hands, watching her put a first aid kit beside her but keep the scissors. She gently slid the blade of the scissors under his sleeve cuff, cutting it down to the tear. She moved up above the wound, cutting off the entire lower arm of both the suit jacket and the dress shirt underneath. She opened the kit, removing a soaked cloth that had been hap hazardously tossed inside. She reached out towards his arm and he pulled away.

He held his good hand out for the cloth, "I can take care of it myself, I know how to-"

"Hush." Maddie shoved his hand away.

She gently took hold of his wrist. Jack's hand moved to grip his elbow, helping to hold the limb still.

"Let us help you...We owe it to you. Please, Vlad."

He tensed, his throat knotted into a lump, "I...I don't..."

He didn't pull away when Maddie began to lightly dab the wound clean. She worked slowly, trying not to hurt him further. She grazed over several painful spots, muttering an apology when he flinched. The bloodstained rag was traded for a needle and thread, the silence filling with sharp hisses and quick sorries. She ran the needle through his skin, Jack holding the wound closed as she sutured it closed, slowly but surely. It wasn't the best job in the world, the edges of the wound jagged and ugly and the stitches uneven. Maddie and Jack laid their hands over his, hooking their fingers through his.

They squeezed, "We promise, we're _never_ leaving you alone again."

Vlad's fingers twitched, and he squeezed back. The wound pulled, stinging and still quite painful.

But it was closed, and it would heal.

-o-oOo-o-

* * *

AN: EDIT: I removed most of the formatting for the breakdown scene, it was too obnoxious to read.


End file.
